Swim In Silence
by watchingmewatchingu
Summary: Max reminisces over her past and rejoice over what lies ahead


_Time moves so fast, when you forget it's there. Suddenly you look up and it's gone and you realize that it has taken everything with it. Time needs to be celebrated, Weather it's the anniversary of an escape, or the birth of a new life, or the death, of an old friend. If we don't start to celebrate our memories, we're destined to lose them._

"Hey, stranger."

_When you let your dreams consume you and tell you what to think, they'll invade your sleep and after a while you tend to forget what you were dreaming about in the first place._

"Hey, you."

'_Once upon a time, there was a princess who lived in a castle in a faraway land. One day, she and her brothers and sisters escaped the evil king who held them captive there and tried to make their way in the world. It was hard because the king never stopped looking for them.'_

"You came."

'_But the princess was lucky. She fell in love and had a family and she was very happy. But one day, the evil king and his men found her and took her away so there was no happily ever after, only the happily ever now that had been hers for a little while and no matter what they did to the princess, nothing could ever take that away from her.'_

"Of course, silly. I wouldn't miss it for anything. You have that look on your face again, Max. Who was it this time? Penny Smith?"

_'She went back to the castle, didn't she? To fight the evil king.'__  
_  
"I've never been able to forgive myself for it. It was my fault that Tinga got captured. She was his mother and now she's not. Just like that. Tragedy strikes when I'm not around, but it also seems to strike when I am. No matter what i do, I can't win. I've ruined a little boys' life, Case will grow up without a mother."

Jondy put her arm around Max.

"Stop beating yourself up about it. It's not your fault. Tinga wouldn't want this for you. She loved Case and she loved you."

And Max knew all this, her head was just full of meaningless clutter and she had begun to block out everything that meant anything.

"Where are the others?"

It hadn't been Max fault, that Tinga had been killed, even so she couldn't shake her death off of her conscious.

"Anxious much? They'll be here, in due time."

Years had passed since their escape from Manticore on that dreadful night.  
On June 1st, 2009 an electromagnetic pulse weapon was detonated in the atmosphere over the United States, which threw the country into complete chaos.  
In 2019, ten years later, in a third world nation, the search for the twelve princes and princesses that escaped that night, was still lead by Lydecker.  
In 2020 one princess was recaptured, and thus caused the destruction of Manticore.  
They were all set free and had come together in Terminal City.

And for a minute Max let herself think about her brothers and sisters, her friends and the fallen heroes of Seattle. Eva, Zack, Brin, Tinga, Kavi, Seth, Krit, Syl, Vada and Zane. She wished them forgiveness for whatever they had done and she wished them longevity for where ever they were going.

"Max?"

It was Jace.

"I want you to meet someone."

She stepped aside and revealed a little boy, he couldn't have been more than three years old.

"Hello."

She came down to his level and her brown eyes gleamed with satisfaction, into the dark night.

"What's your name?"

The little boy asked as he stepped closer to her.

"Max, what's yours?"

He looked up at his mother, who in return gave him a reassuring smile.

"My name is Max too."

_'Either way, name's gonna be Max'_

"Well, what do you know. How does it feel Max?"

Both of them looked up at Jondy.

"Feels good. Feels exactly like how it's supposed to."

They had grown from little children, into beautiful, intelligent men and women. Even so, the world they had once been running from, was still broken and there was no escaping the truth that it would still be broken in the morning.

"A little boy, named after me. That's awesome."

Jace scooped up her son in her arms.

"It is, isn't it?"

It wasn't much, but it was home and it was family and that's all they cared about and in that moment it started to rain.

"It doesn't matter.

Jondy took out a bottle of champagne and popped the cork.

"I hope you don't mind sharing, I forgot to bring glasses."

She raised the bottle up to the sky, in a toast.

"The night is the best part of the whole day, because it let's you ponder on tomorrow."

If there's ever an opportunity, you take it. This was a beautiful night and they would take the opportunity to make it theirs.

"Here's to our broken city."

Jondy passed the bottle over to Max

"And here's to as long as we're around, we'll always know where to find each other,"

She held her breath before taking a sip of the sparkling champagne.  
Sitting with her sisters and the little boy named after her, ontop of the Space Needle was one step closer to a better tomorrow and hopefully, with time, a better world.

_'Funny what you can be scared of.'_


End file.
